Telix Pharmaceuticals and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Announce Renal Cancer Collaboration

MELBOURNE, Australia and NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX.TLX) (“Telix”, the “Company”), an Australian biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of diagnostic and therapeutic products based on targeted radiopharmaceuticals or “molecularly-targeted radiation” (MTR), has today announced a collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).

Telix is developing ⁸⁹Zr-girentuximab (TLX-250) for the purpose of imaging clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC) with Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Under the collaboration, MSK will use TLX-250 as a tool to better manage the therapeutic algorithm for patients with metastatic ccRCC by using imaging to assess early treatment response to standard care drugs (particularly sunitinib and pazopanib). The clinical objective is to use imaging as a precision medicine tool to rapidly determine an optimal therapeutic strategy for the patient.

Telix Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Christian Behrenbruch stated, “We believe treatment-response imaging with TLX-250 can fundamentally change the way we cycle patients through tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), mTOR inhibitors and VEGF-targeting drugs to more recently available options such as nivolumab. In doing so, it is hoped that we can do a better job of maximizing therapeutic response for patients with advanced disease.”

Dr. Steven M. Larson, Director of the Center for Radioimmunotherapy and Theranostics (CRITT) of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy (LCCI) at MSK noted “The ¹²⁴I-cG240 antibody, which was the fore-runner of the novel TLX-250 radio-antibody product, was tested in clinical trials which began more than a decade ago here at MSK, in order to meet the unmet need for better diagnosis and therapy planning for renal cancer. The development of ⁸⁹Zr-girentuximab (TLX-250), will bring this program full circle, toward a more nearly optimal PET-based imaging agent”.  

Dr. Neeta Pandit-Taskar, MSK nuclear medicine physician and Clinical Director, CRITT, added, “We are really excited to be working with Telix on this critically important program. Every day, we strive to find the best solution for how imaging can be used to measure patient response to therapy, since early assessment of treatment response is vitally important for our patients with metastatic kidney cancer.”

As part of the collaboration, Telix will fund MSK’s implementation of a new radiochemistry process and will amend the existing study protocol for repeat dosing of ¹²⁴I-girentuximab to take advantage of the superior sensitivity and specificity of using ⁸⁹Zr (zirconium) chemistry. It is hoped that the improved ⁸⁹Zr-radiochemistry will better detect changes in smaller lesions that are often challenging to image with iodine chemistry. Under the terms of the agreement, Telix will provide clinical-grade material to MSK and modest financial support for the radiochemistry upgrade. The agreement includes clinical data sharing.

About Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited

Telix is an Australian biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of diagnostic and therapeutic products based on targeted radiopharmaceuticals or molecularly-targeted radiation (MTR). The Company is developing an advanced portfolio of oncology products that address significant unmet medical need in renal, prostate and brain (glioblastoma) cancer. Telix is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:TLX).

For more information visit: www.telixpharma.com.

About Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — the world’s oldest and largest private cancer center — has devoted more than 130 years to exceptional patient care, innovative research, and outstanding educational programs. Today, we are one of 47 National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, with state-of-the-art science flourishing side by side with clinical studies and treatment.

The close collaboration between our physicians and scientists is one of our unique strengths, enabling us to provide patients with the best care available as we work to discover more-effective strategies to prevent, control, and ultimately cure cancer in the future. Our education programs train future physicians and scientists, and the knowledge and experience they gain at Memorial Sloan Kettering has an impact on cancer treatment and biomedical research around the world.

To learn more about Memorial Sloan Kettering visit: www.mskcc.org.

About Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy (LCCI)

The focus of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy is to explore and develop innovative therapies that act by stimulating or strengthening the immune system’s inherent ability to fight cancer.

In 2006, a team of Memorial Sloan Kettering investigators led by James P. Allison, former Chair of the Sloan Kettering Institute Immunology Program, was elected as one of six research groups across the country to share a $120 million gift from the Ludwig Fund, named after the late shipping industrialist Daniel K. Ludwig. Mr. Ludwig, who died in 1992, contributed the majority of his wealth in support of laboratory and clinical research to control cancer, which he considered to be one of the greatest challenges facing humanity.

The gift allowed Memorial Sloan Kettering to establish a state-of-the-art collaborative research center focused on immune-system-based therapy, an approach showing great promise in the treatment of cancer and several other diseases. The center received renewed support from the Ludwig Fund in 2014 through an additional gift of $90 million. Staffed by some of the world’s leading experts in the field, the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy is streamlining the translation of basic science discoveries made in a variety of cancers toward patient care.

To learn more about the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy visit:
www.mskcc.org/research-areas/programs-centers/ludwig-immunotherapy.